


A Bonding Exercise

by battleshidge (Amiria_Raven)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Dancing, Fluff, Humor, M/M, THE BOND SHIPS IT, based on a fanart from tumblr (link inside!), bonding exercise, klance, the paladin bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 22:59:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7864816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amiria_Raven/pseuds/battleshidge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coran was taking the role of Shiro’s partner, and Lance would have burst out laughing if it weren’t for the fact that he had to take dancing lessons as a bonding exercise.</p><p>(Based off of a tumblr fanart; link inside)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Bonding Exercise

**Author's Note:**

> THIS FANFICTION IS BASED ON THE LOVELY FANART FOUND [HERE](http://thealeksdemon-art.tumblr.com/post/149343373091/quick-someone-give-me-a-not-really-reluctant) BY THE AMAZING [THEALEKSDEMON-ART](http://thealeksdemon-art.tumblr.com) ON TUMBLR!
> 
> Seriously, take a look at it before you read and I promise it will enrich the experience! And thanks so much for letting me write about it! :)
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

 

Allura was unhappy.

 _That_ was an understatement, Lance realized as she seethed in front of the group. She was _pissed_. And when he acknowledged that, his clever retort died on his lips and he sucked his breath back in.

Nuh-uh. No _way_ was he going to incur her wrath _again_. No way, no how.

“You have been forming Voltron _perfectly_ until now,” she finally spit out, hands on her hips. “You haven’t had any problems that prevented you in several of your Earth _months_ , so what in the world is stopping you now?”

The five paladins remained silent. Shiro’s brow was furrowed in thought, his arms crossed. Pidge was at his side, shifting anxiously and trying not to look directly at the princess. Hunk just looked sheepish and confused, and Lance didn’t blame him. Keith seemed like he wasn’t paying attention, glancing out the window of the control room and out into the vast expanse of stars, and Lance honestly didn’t have a clue.

His profile was nice, though. It was somewhat softer than when he glared at Lance. It was easier to look at Keith when he wasn’t looking back.

When no one spoke, the princess let out a small shriek of frustration.

“That’s it. Coran!” she called, and the trusty Altean stepped up from behind the paladins.

“Yes, princess!”

“Coran, there is yet another bonding exercise that you’ve not made them do, I’m sure?” Pidge barely stifled a groan at the idea of more training, but Lance wasn’t as lucky. Allura shot a piercing glare at him and he nearly shoved his fist in his mouth, looking away as quickly as he could. _Damn_ , she was scary. Hot, but scary.

“Which one would you like to put them through?” he asked, raising a hand and starting to count down fingers. “We have hundreds of fighting drills, diplomacy, teamwork, intimacy—”

“ _That_ ,” Allura snapped her fingers, her eyes flashing in a way that Lance didn’t entirely trust. “Intimacy. That could be just the drill we need. How about...ah, yes. The diplomatic intimacy drill, just to make it even better.”

“So you mean—”

“Precisely.”

 _That can’t be good_ , Lance thought to himself, swallowing hard.

* * *

 

“ _Dancing_?” Pidge asked incredulously, staring up at Lance. They’d been paired up by Coran, who had also paired Hunk and Keith together. He was taking the role as Shiro’s partner, and Lance would have burst out laughing if it weren’t for the fact that he had to take _dancing_ lessons as a _bonding_ exercise.

“Yes, _dancing_ ,” Coran nodded, puffing his chest out. “Dancing is an important part of any paladin’s set of social skills. In the days of old, the paladins of Voltron would often be invited to many diplomatic gatherings in order to negotiate peace between nations. Depending on the customs of the planet in question, the particular type of social interactions vary. Dancing, however, is the most common among all nations and if a paladin cannot show a certain sort of closeness to whomever their partner may be, it can be taken the wrong way. Thus, this exercise is designed to train how well you can show your _intimacy_ and how comfortable you can be with any and all people you meet in diplomatic circumstances.”

“Yeah, but that was ten _thousand_ years ago,” Pidge mumbled, but thankfully Coran didn’t hear it. Lance suppressed a snort but offered his fist and, after a moment of confusion, Pidge grinned and fist bumped him.

“ _Now_ , if you understand, it’s time to begin!” Coran clapped his hands, and then immediately stepped up to Shiro and went in for the _kill_. At the way Shiro stiffened and raised his hands to the side awkwardly, Lance couldn’t hold back his laughter anymore and doubled over.

“Oh my _god_ ,” he wheezed. Beside him, Pidge was in a very similar boat.

Coran, hand still planted firmly on Shiro’s hip, reached out to grasp his cyborg hand. As he did so, he snapped, “That’s quite enough. Take up positions, paladins, like so! Shiro, put your hand on my shoulder. Yes, yes, like that. Don’t be so hesitant, now!”

Lance watched Shiro swallow and tried to control his laughter as he turned to Pidge. It was just...if they had been on Earth still, Shiro was dancing what would have been the woman’s part, and Lance couldn’t take it. With a man of Shiro’s musculature... _oh, quiznak_. He snorted again and then cleared his throat, glancing over to where Hunk was waving his hands about and asking Keith where to put them. Keith looked a little uncomfortable, and Lance found it kind of amusing.

Maybe just a little cute, too.

“ _Lance_ ,” Pidge’s voice cut across his thoughts, and Lance looked back to his partner. “Pay attention. I don’t _want_ to find out what Allura will do to us if we don’t do this and figure out why the hell we had trouble forming Voltron today. There could be any number of reasons. Maybe Hunk was mad at me for eating the last weird potato thing he got off that last planet, or maybe you were mad at Keith for something stupid _again_ but whatever it is, we need to just...fix it. Before Allura comes up with another crazy idea that involves siccing the castle’s defenses on us.”

They shared a glance, and both paladins shuddered as Lance surged forward to put his hand on Pidge’s hip, just like Coran had done to Shiro, and Pidge’s hand fell on his shoulder, like Shiro. And once they had clasped hands, they turned to Coran for instruction.

And then they had to watch as the Altean proceeded to drag Shiro throughout the training deck to the beat of some kind of music that Allura had started playing for them. Shiro, for what it was worth, although he stumbled, put up a valiant effort to match the other man. Lance couldn’t help but grin again and had to avert his gaze, turning back to his own partner.

“Okay, Pidge, let’s give it a whirl,” he pulled Pidge closer, and her hand clenched his shoulder more tightly as she yelped and nearly tripped into him. And then Lance started to lead, following the five basic steps that he’d seen Coran using. Pidge stumbled and Lance chuckled before offering her a few words of advice and, when she continued to grow more frustrated, started to give her a few pointers.

After a while, Pidge groaned and wrenched her hand away from Lance, stomping her foot.

“Dancing as a bonding exercise is so _pointless_!” she cursed, crossing her arms.

“Dude, Pidge, don’t blame me if the princess gets mad,” Lance said, tossing his hands up in surrender.

“It’s just...it’s so…I can’t...ugh!” Pidge groused, unable to look him in the eye. And it clicked with him. Lance couldn’t help but grin. It was just _so_ like Pidge.

“Just mad because I’m better at dancing than you are?” he leaned forward and teased, prodding her lightly in the shoulder. “The one thing I do better than you, huh? Oh, _man_ , that feels good!” Lance laughed, and Pidge pointedly turned away from him.

He was ticking her off, and he knew he should probably stop. But that decision was taken away from him pretty quickly when Allura’s voice echoed.

“Lance, Pidge, that’s enough!” she nearly snapped, and all motion ceased. The others looked over to where Lance and Pidge had separated, and the way she was pointedly ignoring him, and Lance felt all eyes turn, accusingly, on him.

He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender and asked, “Hey, hey, _hey_! What are all those looks for?”

“Keith, trade places with Pidge!” Allura’s voice commanded. “Pidge, you will partner Hunk for the rest of the exercise. Get to it!”

“What, partnering me with _him_?” Lance asked, incredulously, as he waved an arm haphazardly towards Keith. “C’mon, princess, what’s the big idea? I—”

“You’re partnering Keith and that’s _final_ ,” her voice was ice, and Lance immediately closed his mouth.

 _Yikes_.

“I should be the one complaining, jackass,” Keith grumbled, fists on his hips as he looked up at Lance.

Until they were this close, Lance almost always forgot that he was taller than Keith. Probably because of the mullet. Or, well, the bangs. His hair had some _volume_ to it, after all. It made Keith look taller than he actually was. But when they stood about three feet apart, Lance became almost uncomfortably aware of the height difference.

“I resent that!” Lance couldn’t think of a snappy, clever retort fast enough. “Anyway, Mullet, let’s start this _bonding_ thing before she yells at us again.”

To emphasize _bonding_ , Lance utilized his old friends, the finger quotations.

“Whatever,” Keith harrumphed, dropping his hands and taking a step closer to Lance. But that’s where Lance faltered, because he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do. Was he supposed to just step up and put his hand on Keith’s hip? Or was Keith supposed to do that? It had seemed so easy with Pidge, but what did he do with Keith? “Let’s get this over with.”

“Huh? O-oh, yeah!”

Lance took a step closer and there was barely any space between them now. Finally, unsure, he reached out to put his hand on Keith’s waist, and Keith’s hand rested lightly on his shoulder. Anxiously, Lance reached forward to grasp Keith’s smaller hand in his and swallowed. His touch was light, but for some reason Lance couldn’t identify right away, his chest was tight. He cleared his throat a little and glanced at Keith once but regretted it almost instantly and jerked his head to the side.

Keith was looking away, hair in his face and the cutest hint of red on his cheeks.

 _What is this feeling why did I just think he was cute I can’t think Keith’s cute he’s my **rival**_...!

With a shuddering breath, Lance gave a soft countdown to warn his partner, and then made the first step. He could barely bring himself touch Keith and he had no idea why. It hadn’t been a problem five minutes ago when he’d been doing the bonding exercise with Pidge. He’d just gone straight for it and pulled her closer and danced, because dancing was one thing he had done a lot back home. Maybe not always this slow, diplomatic, waltzy thing, sure, but he’d danced.

Maybe that’s why he got the hang of it so much faster than Pidge. She didn’t really seem like the type to go dancing, after all...more like the _sit at home and hack into top secret military files_ kind of girl.

But...he just couldn’t be that at ease with Keith.

Keith’s hand was barely touching Lance’s shoulder, so maybe Keith was having the same issue. Lance had seen him dancing with Hunk— _oh, he couldn’t wait to tease them later_ —and Keith hadn’t shown the same reservation. Did they...did they just hate each other too much to actually be comfortable with touching each other? It couldn’t really be that, though, because despite their differences, they actually got along...didn’t they?

 _Shit, maybe **we’re** the problem,_ Lance suddenly thought.

Whatever this weird tension was, it probably made forming Voltron harder. Lance hadn’t thought of it that way before. The rivalry or _whatever_ it was that had made forming Voltron an impossibility that afternoon _had_ to stop. If Allura found out that it was probably _Lance’s fault_ , he wasn’t sure he’d ever make it home to see the beach and his mom and all of his sisters again.

Lance tried, and failed, to suppress a shudder, and when he came back to reality, it was because he noticed Keith quirking a confused eyebrow at him. When their eyes met, however, Lance felt his ears burn and turned away even as Keith did the same.

“Lance! Keith!” Allura’s voice rang out again, and they both flinched. “You’re being hover-handy! You’re friends! You share a _bond_! Don’t be afraid to touch each other!”

 _Princess, please work on your phrasing_ , Lance pleaded internally, his neck and face and _everything_ starting to burn.

At least he hadn’t audibly choked at the scolding, like Keith. Though he did glare over at Pidge, who snorted and started laughing at the way Allura had worded the statement. When Lance glanced down at Keith, he was as red as his lion and looking everywhere but at Lance. It made the lanky man’s stomach flutter in a way he hadn’t felt since he had liked Samantha Cunningham way back when they were thirteen.

 _Liked_ her? _Wait, but does that mean…?!_

 _Oh my god_.

_OH MY GOD._

If he was right...oh, everything made so much _sense_.

If his hunch was correct and he actually had a _crush_ on _Keith_ , of all people, it had been something he himself was only subconsciously aware of. Of course, that didn’t mean he hadn’t acknowledged Keith as a moderately attractive person before—okay, who was he kidding, Keith was pretty much perfect but it wasn’t like Lance would ever tell him that—but, since he hadn’t outright acknowledged it, it was just stuck in his mind, somewhere. And the thing with the paladin bond and forming Voltron that they had all learned pretty early on was that it often picked up on things that were left even on a subconscious level. Lance would admit that he wasn’t the brightest of the bunch, but if this fluttering feeling was actually representational of his _feelings_ , brought to light by being up close and personal with Keith, it meant that the damn bond had picked up on it _first_.

If he was actually crushing on Keith, the paladin bond had refused to form Voltron because of...what, exactly? _Sexual tension_?

Lance groaned aloud then, his steps faltering slightly.

“Hey, Lance—” Keith started to speak, but the sound of the training deck’s intercom screeched to life again and cut him off.

“Didn’t you hear me? Get _closer_!”

Lance let out a noise of frustration, somewhere between a grunt and a growl, and muttered under his breath, “You asked for it, princess!”

Taking a deep breath and actually praying that Keith wouldn’t hate him for the rest of _forever_ —especially if he really liked Keith, because it would suck to be ignored for getting intimate with him—Lance let his fingers tighten on the other paladin’s waist, pulling Keith closer. Keith stumbled, awkwardly, into Lance’s chest and then Lance laced their fingers together and tried to ignore the way that his heart felt like it was going to explode. And then, almost without pause, Lance continued into the dance, putting more flair into his moments than he had been doing just moments ago.

“Wha— _Lance_!” Keith managed, his feet finally catching up. Lance was making a valiant effort not to look down at his confused partner, but he could feel his cheeks burning.

 _God, Keith will know before I figure it out myself at this rate_ , he bemoaned in his mind.

But the way Keith’s hand tightened on Lance’s shoulder as he followed the steps made Lance’s stomach do flips again. He wouldn’t look at Keith— _he couldn’t_ —but he wanted to. Was he the only one this affected by their proximity? Was it really all his fault that forming Voltron had taken four tries earlier instead of the usual instant connection?

Lance closed his eyes briefly and tried not to focus on how warm he felt wherever he was in contact with Keith. And he totally wasn’t listening to the soft sounds of Keith’s breath and the way their gentle steps seemed almost perfectly in sync as they continued the weird Altean waltz. A deep breath and _push those thoughts down, Lance_.

Suppressing the thought wouldn’t help the _bonding_ thing at all but Lance wasn’t quite sure he was ready for everyone to dig in his head hole and find something he wasn’t even positive about himself.

At least his action had stopped Allura’s nagging for the time being, though, because he didn’t know if he could deal with her telling them to get closer any more than she already had. It was awkward enough _waltzing_ with _Keith_. Being told to _touch each other_ didn’t help matters at all. And it didn’t help that Keith was silently following Lance’s lead, and the steps he was making. He was _trusting_ Lance with this, and that in itself wasn’t really something that the lanky man had been prepared for.

Nerves welled up in his gut again, though, and after a bit, Lance lightened his touch on his partner. Keith’s grip loosened in accordance, but they kept moving through the motions with the same pacing as before. A glance at Keith proved that he still wasn’t looking at Lance, looking down and slightly to the right, and Lance shyly averted his gaze in the opposite direction.

_This isn’t good, Lance, abort, abort, abort!_

Quitting wasn’t an option with Allura policing their movements from above, though, so despite how he and Keith had returned to what she had called a “hover-handy” touch, he forged onward. It was just _so hard_ not to look at Keith, though, and Lance kept stealing glances. He never managed to catch another glimpse of his face, though, and he found himself feeling more than a little disappointed.

At the end of the training exercise, after another tortuous hour, Allura came down out of the booth and scanned over the paladins with sharp eyes. Lance shrank under her gaze and just _knew_ she was focusing most of her irritation at him.

“Shiro, you pass. You were reluctant at first, but you picked up well. Hunk, you pass with the next highest grade because you were attentive to your partner and slowed down to help both Keith and Pidge learn. Pidge is next for her diligence. But the others,” her eyes lit on Lance and Keith, who were dutifully looking anywhere but at Allura or at each other, “have _work_ to do.”

“Hey!” Lance spoke up, “I have some _sick_ dance moves, Princess! Didn’t you see? If not, I can show you again,” he waggled his eyebrows, but it was a very flawed attempt at his usual gusto and Allura raised a single brow at him.

“Of technical dancing skill, yours was admittedly the best, but you failed to pay attention to your partners, and you had a certain lack of intimacy that proved your performance lacking,” she spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, and Lance felt his cheeks heating up again. “Now all of you, go eat and get some rest. We will pick up this exercise again tomorrow with the same partners until _everyone_ gets it right.”

Pidge groaned and glared at Lance, and for once he didn’t retort in indignation. He definitely deserved the blame for this.

* * *

 

“I know you can dance,” Hunk pointed out as they chilled in his room later. “And you’re not shy about it _at all_. So what gives? Pidge said you were perfectly fine _attacking_ her—her words, not mine—so why weren’t you able to just do your thing? I mean, I get that it’s Keith and he’s your rival and all, but you don’t _actually_ hate him, so there shouldn’t be a problem. You guys have started to become friends, right? Not that it’s really any of my business, I guess, but I seriously think you guys should just talk and see if you can figure it out because, at this rate, Allura’s gonna blame you for the problem no matter _what_ and—”

“It _is_ my fault,” Lance grumbled, but Hunk kept rambling.

“—you really don’t want that. Wait, _what_ did you just say?” the big paladin paused, eyes widening in surprise as he turned to look at Lance. “Did you just actually _admit_ that something was _your fault_? Something that also included _Keith_?”

“Yeah,” he flopped back on Hunk’s impeccably clean floor, arms spread out as Hunk, sitting on his bed, leaned over to look incredulously down at him. “All of this is seriously my fault.”

“Dude,” Hunk seemed at a loss for words, but as usual it only lasted a few moments. “ _Dude_. This is _progress_ , man. If you know what the problem is, then it’s a totally easy fix! We’ll be done with dancing lessons tomorrow and Pidge won’t try to kill you and forming Voltron will be easy-peasy again, just like usual! Why didn’t you say something earlier? What’s the hold up, dude?”

“ _Ilikeith,_ ” Lance admitted it aloud, though the words jumbled together in his barely audible murmur.

“Bro, you’re turning bright red, but I didn’t hear that at _all_. I know whatever you said was embarrassing, but you’re gonna have to tell me again.”

“ _I like Keith!_ ” the words bubbled out, a little desperately, and Lance hurriedly rolled over onto his side, turning his back to his friend. “His stupid attitude and his stupid smirk and his stupid hair…”

Lance turned his head, face on _fire_ , to look at Hunk. Hunk stared back, blinking slowly, before promptly falling off his bed.

The paladin of the blue lion groaned and turned back to staring at Hunk’s wall, running a distressed hand through his hair. Now that the words had actually been _spoken_ he couldn’t take them _back_.

“Dude. Like, you _like_ him?” Hunk repeated, and Lance heard him scramble to sit upright on the floor. “As in you have a _crush_ on him? As in you have _feelings_ for him? Because since that was an intimacy exercise, man, I don’t see the problem? It should have been...oh. _Oh_. Don’t tell me you only _just realized it today_? Oh that makes so much _sense_. And the bond picked it up before _you_ did and made it hard to form Voltron because you and Keith aren’t totally in sync right now because it thought you were _hiding_ it. But...no _wonder_ you thought he was always your rival. Oh my god, Lance, you were probably _always_ attracted to him. Just...wow.”

“What do I do?” Lance whined pathetically, still not facing Hunk. “Like, I have to talk to him about it, I guess. But...how? It’s...I’m not even sure how I feel about this yet, but I have to make everything _right_ and even though I’m not ready to talk about it I’m going to _have_ to and I _don’t know what to do_!”

Hunk’s hand lightly gripped his shoulder, giving a comforting squeeze.

“C’mon, dude, you’ll be fine. I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon, but you probably should talk to him tonight. At least a little. Test the waters, in a way?”

Lance hummed a little to acknowledge Hunk’s words, then rolled into a sitting position. Finally, after draping his arm over his knee for a few moments as he considered his friend’s suggestion, Lance sighed.

“You’re right,” he acquiesced, pushing himself to his feet. “No time like the present, eh?”

The bigger man scrambled to his feet after Lance, and looked like he wanted to say more. It was a nice, warm feeling, having a friend like Hunk. He was like...he was definitely a Mom Friend, and he always wanted everyone to be happy and comfortable and well fed. It’s probably why Lance usually confided in him. It used to be shy admittances of how he knew he was probably the worst on the team— _no, don’t think like that, everyone’s got their owns strengths and weaknesses_ —or useless whining about something Keith had done— _well, his plan did work in the end, so everything’s good, right?_ —so this thing about _feelings_ was a bit different.

Hunk still gave him the same warm, comfortable feeling. No judgement, only support.

Lance looped his arm around Hunk’s shoulders for a side hug, laughing and admitting, maybe for the first time, “You’re my best friend, Hunk. Thanks a lot.”

After a stutter, the big man replied, “Of course I am! _We’re_ best friends, dude. Haven’t we always been?” and, as he returned the half-hug, he added, “And really, man, it’s no problem. If something’s bugging you, I’ll always be here to help.”

He released Hunk then, stretching before announcing, “Whelp, I guess it’s time to go find that mullet-head!”

“You like him and you’re still calling him names?” Hunk asked, tone deadpan.

“Of course!” Lance winked. “I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t, now would I?”

With that, he waved and slipped out into the hallway, looking up and down the hall. As the door closed behind him, he wondered which way to go. He could go directly to Keith’s room and see if the paladin of the red lion was already there, or he could go around looking for him. Keith did spend a lot of his spare time on the training deck, after all.

A few moments of thought, and Lance decided to knock on his door anyway, just in case. It was literally right down the hall, and it was on the way to the training deck, to boot. Two birds with one stone, and all that.

 _Knock, knock, knock_.

The sound echoed in the empty hallway, and Lance rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. But after several moments, and another attempt at knocking, he shoved his hands in his pockets and turned back, heading for the training deck. It was apparent that Keith wasn’t in his room, after all.

On his way, Lance tried to figure out what he’d say.

_Yo, Mullet! This is random but the reason we can’t form Voltron is because I like you and I didn’t really know it. So...yeah. Now you know._

Somehow, he had a feeling that wouldn’t send the right vibe.

_Hey, Keith, this isn’t super important so you can just, like, ignore it if you want to, but apparently on a subconscious level, I really like you and the paladin bond realized it before I did and won’t let us form Voltron because of it. I think. So since I figured it out I thought I’d tell you._

That was way too uncertain. He had to be serious about it!

_Are you an alien, ‘cause your ass is out of this world. Shit, Lance, that’s not right._

He shook his head and groaned aloud, turning yet another corner. So much for _serious_. And the training deck was close, now. He didn’t have much time to organize his thoughts.

_Don’t take this the wrong way, buddy, but I think you’re cute. And hot. And I think I might like you and that’s probably why Voltron hates us right now._

The door was right in front of him.

_Hey, Keith. I like you._

As the door slid open, Lance spotted just the person he’d been looking for, just standing in the center of the room. He didn’t even have his bayard in his hand. In fact, Lance couldn’t see the red bayard _anywhere_ , and none of the training drones looked like they’d been used. He furrowed his brow and glanced back to Keith, who still hadn’t noticed his audience of one.

And then Keith raised his left hand to just around the height of his nose and held his right out to the side. Lance cocked his head to the side, taking a light step into the room and allowing the door to softly close behind him. Somehow, Keith _still_ hadn’t noticed—and then Lance heard it. The music from earlier. And as a few things clicked in his mind, he watched as Keith started to move with the sound, flowing through the steps of the Altean waltz with his eyes closed. He was light on his feet, as always, and Lance was entranced.

At first, all Lance could do was watch in silence as Keith practiced the exercise from earlier. He hadn’t been able to look at the other paladin while they were dancing together, so he’d missed the subtle grace with which Keith moved, the fluidity that only came from years and years of constant practice, constant movement. Lance, somewhere in the back of his mind, acknowledged that it could have been combat training from the Garrison, but that didn’t matter nearly as much as the bottom of his stomach dropping out when he realized that Keith was practicing with an imaginary person that would have been roughly Lance’s height.

Lance sucked in a shaky breath and _knew_ he was in a lot deeper than he’d realized.

But Lance was Lance, after all, and quickly found a place to casually lean his shoulder against the wall, crossing his arms and bringing his best confident smirk to his lips as he cleared his throat.

Keith froze and opened his eyes, turning his head quickly to find the intruder. And Lance, throat tightening, managed to force out, “If you wanted to practice, you could have just asked me to practice with you.”

He couldn’t tell whether Keith was relieved or furious. It was a strange mixture of emotions that crossed his face, but then he relaxed and dropped his hands to his hips, looking Lance up and down. Lance’s chest squeezed but he held his partner’s gaze, praying that his smile hadn’t faltered yet.

They stood there, sizing each other up, for several long moments before Keith let a drawn out sigh pass his lips and asked, “Well? Aren’t you coming over here?”

 _That wasn’t what I expected_ , Lance’s mind hissed, and he nearly toppled and fell. There wasn’t any way to make his blunder look suave, so he just rolled his shoulders, tried to mask his utter surprise with a cocky grin, and put extra pep in his step as he sauntered across the floor to his partner.

“At your service!” Lance inclined his head with a fancy flourish of his hand and asked himself _what am I doing why am I doing this what is wrong with me_ even as he grinned and straightened to face Keith. He held out his hand and asked, quirking one eyebrow, “Shall we, partner?”

With a groan that was probably a direct result of how cheesy Lance was being, Keith reached out to take his hand. From the second their fingers touched, Lance’s hand started to tingle. In a good way, because it was hard for him to conceal how eager he was to put his hand back on Keith’s waist. That proximity, the closeness...oh, someone help him, because Lance was sure he was about to experience sweaty palms for the first time in his _life_.

 _And Keith wasn’t wearing his gloves_.

Oh, how had that escaped his notice before? No _wonder_ his heart was trying to beat right out of his chest. Their skin was touching, and the rough texture of Keith’s old, well-worn gloves wasn’t there to minimize the contact. Instead, Lance was able to feel the callused hands of a man who had always worked hard and trained hard. He admired that, actually, and it only made him even more anxious.

Keith’s hand came to rest on Lance’s shoulder. There was still some hesitation, but as Lance wanted to see where this went, he watched as Keith set his brow, bit his lip, and grasped the taller man’s shoulder more firmly. And Lance, though he still needed to talk to Keith about the _feelings_ thing, felt resolve pool in his stomach. He could probably use dancing to lead into that discussion...somehow. For now, though, he squeezed Keith’s hand in his and moved forward to rest his hand on Keith’s waist.

And as the song overhead thrummed and started to repeat, Lance pulled Keith into the flow of the dance. The paladin of the red lion fell in step easily, and they glided across the training deck together, without speaking a word. This time, though, Lance watched his partner. He saw the determined set in Keith’s brow, then the way he slowly gained confidence as they worked flawlessly in tandem. He saw the way Keith glanced up at him once and then, quickly, averted his gaze.

He saw the soft flush blooming across Keith’s cheeks this time, and felt the same happening to his own.

The song restarted and they continued spinning through the room, but Lance was steadily organizing his speech in his head. They were flowing through the moves with only a few minor hiccups, after all, and if Keith was flushing because he felt _awkward_ with Lance, then he’d probably want to call it quits soon. But if he was flushing because of the same reasons that Lance was, how long could they keep this up before they had to speak?

Regardless, Lance knew he had to open the subject, and soon, before he lost his nerve and the resolve that had taken him so long to build. So, after a perfectly executed turn, as Keith slid back in, nearly chest-to-chest with Lance— _oh, god, were we dancing this close the whole time?_ —he took a deep breath.

Squeezing the slightly smaller hand within his own, and looking down as Keith turned his head up, curious, Lance finally said, “I, uh, think I might have an idea why we couldn’t form Voltron today.”

Blinking up at him, Keith started to flush even darker. At first, Lance was confused, but then Keith averted his gaze slightly and haltingly spoke, “Oh, uh, you do? I thought I had an idea why, too…”

Lance felt his face burning and their steps slowed to a halt.

“Wait, you _know_?” he blurted without thinking, and Keith looked up. He raised a quizzical brow, as if Lance had said something strange, but all Lance could focus on was the color flooding Keith’s cheeks. And as he gazed up at Lance in curiosity, his eyes widened and his flush deepened and Lance knew he was blushing, too. _Everything_ was burning now. But, if Keith already knew, he was going to push forward. With a nervous fluttering in his gut he asked, “W-when did you find out?”

Keith furrowed his brow. “What do you mean when did _I_ find out? That’s _my_ line!”

They stared at each other for a few moments in complete confusion, and in that moment Lance realized that they were still standing incredibly close. A few days ago, this would have been too close for comfort, but now he wanted Keith _closer_.

The image flashed through his mind and Keith’s eyes widened once more.

_Oh no. Oh **no**. That just went across the bond, didn’t it?_

“W-wait a second,” Keith said slowly, his eyes narrowing. “That...that was _your_ thought. Not mine.”

Lance swallowed. Oh, this was about to get really awkward _really_ fast.

“I-I think the bond picked up on the fact that I l-like you before I did,” Lance tried to say it outright, but it came out a little mumbled, and he averted his eyes. He heard his partner’s breath hitch, and he knew it was about to come crashing down around him, so he closed his eyes and waited. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting. Was Keith going to pull himself out of Lance’s grasp and punch him? Was he just going to walk away? _What_?

“W-wait, _what_?”

Slowly, Lance peered back at Keith. He wasn’t making any move to pull away, but was just looking at Lance with a strange expression on his face. Lance bit his lip and repeated it slowly, “The bond picked up that I liked you before I did.”

Keith’s fingers twitched, and then he squeezed Lance’s hand. It was only then that Lance realized they still hadn’t parted from each other, and the heat he was feeling nearly overtook him. The proximity to Keith wasn’t doing him any favors, and the nervousness in his gut as he waited for Keith’s reaction was _murder_.

And then he nearly swooned as the shorter paladin glanced away, biting his own lip, before murmuring, “Can you...say it again?”

“How many times am I going to have to say it for you to believe me?” Lance nearly choked.

“N-no, I believe you,” Keith said quickly, looking back up at Lance. “I just...I want to hear you say it again. That...that you l-like me.”

Oh.

 _Oh_.

Maybe the trouble with Voltron hadn’t been entirely his fault, after all?

With the tiniest dregs of confidence, Lance managed to lean forward a little and demanded, “I want to hear it from you first.”

If it was possible, Lance would have sworn that Keith got even redder at his words, but there was a certain, defiant sort of set to his jaw and he shifted his hand from Lance’s shoulder to grab a fistful of his grey shirt. He pulled the lanky man even closer and stated, almost challengingly, “I liked you first.”

Lance blinked, and then smiled. “I’d believe that. I mean, I am pretty awesome, don’t you think?”

“Unfortunately.”

Keith’s answer was lackluster at best, but the usually cheerful paladin couldn’t find it in him to be upset. Not when there was a nice warmth in his stomach and he felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. And then he leaned forward, teasingly, to whisper in Keith’s ear, “I like you.”

“Stop it, you,” Keith pushed him back a little, palm flat on Lance’s chest, but Lance couldn’t help but grin at his expression.

“C’mon, buddy, you _liked_ it,” he chuckled, lacing his fingers more thoroughly through Keith’s. And then, impulsively, he brought their linked hands to his mouth, brushing a light kiss across his partner’s knuckles.

The other paladin averted his gaze again, cheeks still aflame, but his fingers squeezed again and Lance squeezed back. And then, without a word, he pulled Keith slowly back into the flow of the music around him, not even trying to hide his smile.

Pretty soon, Keith started chuckling, and then stepped closer to Lance, curling the hand on his shoulder around so that he could play with the hair at the nape of Lance’s neck.

* * *

 

When the paladins reported to the training deck the next morning, Lance walked with a bounce in his step as he took his place near Keith. Keith offered him a secret sort of smile in return and they took up dancing positions nearly _before_ Allura’s cue.

Somehow, it was so much _easier_ than it had been the day before, or even last night. Now that they knew exactly what the other had been feeling, that their own feelings were requited, it made this exercise in intimacy a lot easier to accept. And, in Lance’s opinion, they definitely did it the most justice. He and Keith made the hottest dancing couple _by far_ —and the most skilled.

“Lance, Keith,” Allura said after an hour as everyone paused. “What in the world have you done to improve so much in just a few hours?”

Lance opened his mouth, a fantastic retort just on the tip of his tongue—

—when Hunk answered, “They totally started dating.”

The excellent lines that Lance had been about to spew crumbled and he spluttered a little, turning to Hunk. Allura stared blankly for a minute, as if she wasn’t sure whether to believe it or not. Everyone had always heard their arguments, of course, and Lance’s bold declarations of hatred or rivalry. In fact, Shiro had just started to say something to Hunk, about teasing Lance too much, when Keith crossed his arms and, with a dusting of red across his cheeks, demanded, “And what of it?”

 _Man, I love this boy_ , Lance found himself thinking as Allura’s face turned red. And Lance stepped forward and dropped his arm around Keith’s shoulders, smirking at her.

“Sorry, Princess, but I’m afraid I’m off the market,” he sighed dramatically, but smiled down at Keith. He turned his attention back to Allura and added, “Really, though, it’s thanks to this exercise that I realized I liked him, so I guess I should thank you.”

And, to top it off, Lance leaned down to press a kiss to Keith’s cheek, which burned under his lips.

A few more stunned seconds, and Pidge spoke up, “Shiro, Allura, Coran? You owe Hunk and me scrap parts and a stop for exotic food ingredients. You bet they wouldn’t realize it for another couple of months, didn’t you?”

 

 

  


**Author's Note:**

> Hit me up on tumblr at [battleshidge](http://battleshidge.tumblr.com) or on my main at panda013!


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